Crime

Terry speaks with Wilbert Rideau, an inmate serving a life term at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. He reports on various aspects of life, culture and rehabilitation at the penitentiary. This segment will focus on the issue of literacy, education programs and self-education at Angola. These reports from prison have been arranged in cooperation with prison officials, who administer a number of outreach programs to educate the public about prison policies and rehabilitation efforts. Rideau is an eighth grade dropout and taught himself to write while in prison.

TV dramas are becoming wildly popular again. Critic David Bianculli says two stand out from the rest: "Homicide: Life on the Streets" and "Picket Fences."

Anne Maguire and her son Patrick were part of the Maguire Seven, the family who was wrongfully arrested in 1974 on suspicion of manufacturing bombs for the Irish Republican Army. The family was tortured, tried, convicted, and jailed, and was not reunited for eleven years. Anne spent eight years in prison; Patrick spent four after being convicted at the age of 13. Anne has written a book about their experience, called "Miscarriage of Justice."

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "Pulp Fiction." He says it's far from perfect -- but it's so good, you won't care.

Computer viruses are computer users' worst nightmare, but a mystery to many of us. Computer expert Corey Sandler has written an easy-to-understand article about viruses in the September issue of "PC Computing." Today, Sandler explains how viruses work and talks to virogens, the writers of virus programs.

Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn were Beijing correspondents for "The New York Times" from 1988 to 1993. They won a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. They have just written a book called "China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power." It explores the contradiction in China of a booming economy paired with terrible human rights abuses, as the country struggles to become a new world power.

British mystery writer Anne Perry is the author of 19 crime novels based in Victorian England. It was recently discovered that, forty years ago, Perry took part in a murder. She was 15 and on medication for an illness she had at the time. She went to jail for five and a half years. Her newly released 20th book, "The Sins of the Wolf" is about a nurse imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit.

Critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new Robert Redford film, about a real-life game show scandal in the 1950s.

Legal journalist Stephen Adler. He is legal affairs editor of "The Wall Street Journal." He's written a new book about what's wrong with the jury system and how it can be fixed: "The Jury: Trial and Error in the American Courtroom," Adler looks at the history of the jury system and how our attitudes about juries have changed over the years.

In 1985, Maull was sentenced to 25 years in prison for drug smuggling. Since then, he has devoted most of his time in prison to working with dying prisoners, and to teaching Buddhist practice and meditation. In 1988, Maull helped establish the National Prison Hospice Association, which establishes hospices to help dying prisoners prepare for death. Maull is also a devout Buddhist. After establishing a meditation group in his own prison in Springfield, Missouri, he founded the Prison Dharma Network, for prisoners who want to become involved in Buddhist study and meditation.

A broadcast of a panel held at New York University in April called "Cops and Writers: Crime and Punishment in Literature and Real Life." The panel, sponsored by the PEN American Center and The New York Review of Books, features police officials and writers, including crime writer Walter Mosley and author Joyce Carol Oates. The panel focuses on the fine line between crime fiction and crime reality. The writers talk about the fact that crime novelists generally draw on real criminals and real crimes to create their characters and plot.

Music by blues singer and guitarist Robert Pete Williams has just been reissued. Williams, like Leadbelly, was a convicted murderer who sang his way out of prison. Commentator Milo Miles has this review.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews "A Clear and Present Danger," a macho and intelligent espionage thriller starring Harrison Ford.

Biographer Laurence Bergreen has just written a biography of Al Capone, called "Capone: The Man and the Era," which challenges many of America's popular beliefs about the famous gangster. Bergreen reveals the complexity of Capone's life by focusing on the personal details of his life -- his marriage, his role as a loving father, and generous giver. Bergreen has also written biographies of James Agee and Irving Berlin.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead substitutes for Stephen Schiff and reviews the new movie "The Client," based on John Grisham's bestselling legal thriller.

Frank Smyth is a freelance journalist who has written on Rwanda for "The Village Voice," "The Nation," and "The New Republic," and an investigative consultant for Human Rights Watch/Africa. He wrote a report for Human Rights Watch/Africa based on his visit to Rwanda in May and June of 1993. The report, "Arming Rwanda," is about the arms trade and the human rights violations in that country.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new Arnold Schwarzenegger/Jamie Lee Curtis film. Schiff says it features small-scale wit and large-scale pyrotechnics -- though it never manages to blend the two.

Josephine Humpreys and Ruthie Bolton. Humpreys is a fiction writer who won the Pen/Hemingway award in 1985 for "Dreams of Sleep." She recently transcribed and edited the life story of Bolton, who grew up in the same area of Charleston, South Carolina as Humphreys. The novel is called "Gal," and details Bolton's experiences growing up with an abusive grandfather in 1960's South Carolina.

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews the new movie starring Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte. Schiff says it never manages to get beyond kind of cute.

Roger Connor is founder and Executive Director of the American Alliance for Rights and Responsibilities (AARR), a legal organization aimed at making individuals more responsible for their communities. Connor and the AARR have been active in helping communities enact anti-panhandling laws. His group recently drafted a law making it illegal for panhandlers to step in someone's path, or to panhandle in subway stations or at ATM machines.